Maria Semple Quotes

Don't start writing your novel until you know your characters very, very well. What they'd do if they saw somebody shoplifting. What they were like at school. What shoes they wear. Spend days - weeks, months - being them until they thicken up and start to breathe.

I'm about my characters.

I've got to write about my character every day. I've got to find out where he lives, what bus he catches to school, and stuff like that. You've got to know every little thing about him so when you do it, it feels natural.

I like to take a character and develop it.

Usually when I'm trying to establish character, I try and find out where they live.

Don't set pen to paper until you know your main characters inside out. Create files detailing their appearances, likes, dislikes, and personal background. You may not use all the information, but it is a crucial step in planning your story.

For me, plot always comes out of character, so I had to be sure of my characters.

I know the relationships, and I already know my characters and how I'm going to reveal my characters to my readers - how I'm going to feed them information about that character. That stuff doesn't have to be in my outline.

For 'The Bestseller'... there was hardly any research, but I had to give each person a quirk and develop their stories so that it would relate to who they are.

I think you've got to understand your character and where they're coming from.

You've got to leave the reader with more than just a name and a costume - they need to know who the character is, what they're like, what kind of attitude they have, what sort of role they play.

Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.

I have a cheat-sheet for each one of my characters about their personality, the way they look, etc. So there is no possible way that I could have writer's block.

Before I ever begin writing a new story, I have to sketch my characters out on paper. It's part of my process of understanding who they are.

I think my best quality as a writer is the ability to craft complicated, nuanced, interesting characters.

When it comes to a character, I make sure that it adds to the plot.

You're living with these characters for years and years, you need to have a lock on who they are as people, what they like, what they don't like, what they experience, and what they go through.

I'm interested in characters. I love them, and I love to write them.

I mean, can I really create a full, three-dimensional character? I don't know anymore. I'm certainly going to try.

As actors, you don't actually need to know the future of the character. You just need to know the backgrounds.

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.

Because characters are your creations, you are the one who ultimately gets to decide their fate.

I live intimately with my characters before starting a book. I cut out pictures of them for my wall. I do time lines for each major character and a time line for the entire novel: What is going on in the world as my characters struggle with their problems?

I think it's important that a director be able to know his characters inside and out.

Well, first of all, you read the script a million times. Because what the script gives you are given circumstances. Given circumstances are all the facts of your character.